Dancing toy.



C. H. GREEN.

DANCING TOY.

APPLlcAloN FILED rts.2|. |916.

1,207,022. Patented Dec. 5,19l6.

UNTTED sTaTus PATENT orion.

CLIFFORD I-I. GREEN, OF GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN, ASSIGNOR T0 NATIONAL 'PIANO MANUFACTURING COMPANY, OF GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN, A CORPORATION 0F ILLINOIS.

DANCING TOY.

Application filed February 21, 1916.

To all 'whom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, CLIFFORD H. GREEN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Grand Rapids, in the county of Kent and State of Michigan, have invented new and useful Improvements in Dancing Toys, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention relates to dancing toys, and particularly to such a toy used in connection with a player piano.

The object of my invention is to produce a very amusing toy, the motions and postures of the legs and arms of which, and of the sound or beat made by which will always be in absolute rhythm with the music produced bythe piano. This I accomplish by the means hereinafter fully described, and as particularly pointed out in the claims.

In the drawings: Figure 1 is a view of a broken away part of a player piano showing in elevation my improvements applied thereto. Fig. 2 is a vertical section of the lower part of the dancing figure of said toy, taken on line 2 2, Fig. 1, and drawn to an enlarged scale. Fig. 3 is a section of a fragment of the portion of the dancing ligure shown in Fig. 2, taken on dotted line 3 3, Fig. 1.

Referring to the drawings, A represents the main exhaust-chamber of a player piano upon the top of which a stack of small pneumatics or bellows a is arranged, each of which is connected by a suitable tube b with some one particular perforation in the tracker-board (not shown) in the usual and ordinary manner. Every time one of the perforations in the tracker-board is opened by the passage of the perforated music over the same, the pneumatic which is connected by its tube b with the opening in the trackerboard collapses. This causes a variation in the density of the air in the main chamber, which necessarily is in rhythm with the music.

My invention comprises a toy gure-in this instance the ligure of a man 4, having arms 5, 5, pivotally connected to the shoulders of the body or shell 6 thereof, and jointed legs 7 7 pivotally connected independently of each other at their upper ends within the lower annular edge of said body by a cross-bar 8. The ends of this cross-bar 8 are suitably secured in the downturned Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 5, 1916.

Serial No. 79,583.

ends 9, 9, of a bridge 10 connecting diametrically opposite sides of the shell of the body, and the center of length of this bridge has a tubular socket 12 depending therefrom in substantial alinement with the axis of the body of the toy. The center' of crossbar 8 passes transversely through the lower end of this socket, and the end of the latter has vertically alining openings therein just large enough to permit the passage therethrough of a vertical vibratory rod or wire 13 which is flattened to provide an enlargement 14 at a suitable pointalong its length that limits the extent to which it can be inserted in said socket and supports the figure so that the feet thereof can strike against a platform 15 upon which the ligure dances. This platform is simply a rectangular box which rests upon a horizontally disposed board 16, and has its rear side and bottom open. The board under the box is partially cut away and the top inclined leaf of a small bellows 17 is secured in a stationary position within this box so that when the bellows is expanded to its limit the lower leaf 18 will be horizontal, and this bellows is kept in its expanded position by means of a U-shaped spring 19 the ends of which are secured to the side edges of said leaves opposite their hinged ends. This bellows 17 is connected by means of a tube 20 with the main chamber A of the exhaust-stack, and whenever there is a variation in the density of the air in said main chamber there is a corresponding variation of the density of the air in the bellows, thus causing the lower leaf 18 of the bellows to vibrate up and down.

The lower leaf 18 has an arm 21 secured to and extending longitudinally from the end thereof farthest from the hinge of the bellows, and a leaf-spring 22 is secured to and projects beyond the free end of said arm upon which the lower end of the vibratory rod 13 is loosely mounted, and which rod, as stated, supports the dancing ligure. This rod 13 extends up through the top of the platform and through the bore of a vertical tube 23 that guides its reciprocable vibratory movement, and between the top of this tube and the crotch of the legs of said figure I can, if desired, divide said rod and connect the ends of said divisions by a coil wire spring 24 so as to give the dancing figure a certain degree of resiliency and also lateral movement so that in daneing its legs will not simply move in onev vertical plane, but will move to a limited extent from side to side in the same manner as the natural dancer would.

What I claim as new is:

l. The combination in a player piano with the pneumatic system thereof, of an articulated dancing toy, a bellows, means for connecting and imparting the fluctuations of the air pressure 1n said pneumatic system to said bellows, and vibratory mechanism for imparting the movements of said bellows to said toy.

2. The combination with bellows connectl ed with the air exhaust-mechanism of a one of the leaves of which is stationary and the other hinged to one end of said sta# tionary leaf, and an arm extending from the free edge of said hinged leaf, of a vertical l4 vibratory rod vibrated by said arm, and an Copies of this patent may be obtained for articulated dancing toy mounted upon the upper end of said rod.

4. The combinationwith bellows connected with the air exhaus't#mechanism` Naplayer piano, means for automatically restoring said bellows to its expanded position one of the leaves of which is stationary and the other hinged to one end of said stationary leaf, an arm extending from the free end of said hinged leai', and a leafspring extending from said arm, of a vertical vibratory rod supported by said spring and vibrated by said arm, and an `articulated dancing toy mounted upon the said rod. t

5. The combination withthe"1nain-chamv ber of the exhaust stack of a player piano, af tube extending from said chamber, a bellows-r to which the other end of said tube'is con'.`

nected, means for automatically restoring anism for imparting the movements of sai bellows to said toy.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this 15th day of J an., 1916.

Witnesses: f DANIEL W. SMITH, FANNIE B. PHIPPS. y

five cents each, `byaddressing the Commissioner of-Patentargj Washington, l1)'. C. v

upper end of' y onrrronn n; GREEN: ,j

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